Career Day
by EmberForge
Summary: Cuddy forced House to go talk to a group of highschoolers about being a doctor. Afterwards, he finds that the day ended up being a bit more interesting than he expected.


House sighed, the sound combining with the clicking of his cane to echo along the empty school hallway. He didn't want to be here. Cuddy, however, _did_ want him to be here, and this time, Cuddy actually managed to get what she wanted.

Not without excessive force, of course. When Cuddy had approached him with the idea of him going to talk to a high school biology club about his job, House had laughed her off and told her to go find Wilson. She then proceeded to tell him that she'd triple his clinic hours for the next two months if he didn't do it, thus leaving him no choice but to change his mind. At least it got him out of the hospital for a day. He had no interesting cases, and talking to snot nosed, hormonal teens was better than dealing with them in the clinic. It had turned out just as he thought it would. Cuddy never told him to censor himself for the kids, so naturally, he didn't. Unsurprisingly, there seemed to be a few people who were slightly offended by the end of his talk. Other than that, the teens were mostly silent, with a couple of halfhearted questions here and there. Absolutely boring.

House's thoughts were subsequently interrupted by someone crashing into him, making him stagger and lose his grip on his cane. He looked down to see a teenage girl at his feet. She hurriedly scrambled to pick House's cane up off the ground, swaying a bit as she stood back up and handed it to him.

"I'm so sorry!" She exclaimed, as House looked at her suspiciously. She quickly looked him up and down, seemingly to make sure she hadn't hurt him. Rubbing her head, the girl was about to hurry away when House stopped her.

"Wait. Come back over here."

The girl looked hesitant, but did as he said. House quickly pulled out a penlight from his pocket and shined it in her eyes, and the girl flinched back. "Hey! What are you doing?"

"Oh relax, I'm a doctor. Now would you stand still for a minute?"

Scowling, the girl allowed him to continue. After a moment, he stowed the penlight away and held up a finger in front of her face. "Now follow my finger," he told her, observing her attempt to do so. He then brought his hand back down to his side. "Have you hit your head recently?" He asked.

"In gym class the other day- I was hit with a soccer ball. Why?"

"You seem to have a concussion."

She seemed a bit surprised. "Okay, then I'll go see my actual doctor later. Can I go now?"

"Shouldn't the school nurse have figured this out already?"

"The gym teacher didn't see it happen, and I thought I was fine. No use getting the other girl in trouble. It was an accident." She sighed. "Look, I have a, a thing, okay? I'm leaving." She spun around and started to walk away.

"And I suppose the blood on the back of your shirt was an accident, too?"

The specks were so small that House wasn't entirely sure he was correct, but it produced a strong reaction in the girl. She tried to bolt, but House was too quick. He grabbed her arm, lightly putting his other hand on her back. She flinched and tried to pull away, proving his hypothesis, but his grip was firm. "Anything else you want to tell me?"

"Why do you even care?"

"I'm a doctor. It's my job to care, or so they tell me. Now, will you let me take a look, or would you rather slowly bleed out?"

Her sullen tone suddenly held a hint of fear. "I... I didn't think it was that bad!"

"Oh, probably not," House agreed. "But then again, I won't know until I take a look, will I?"

"... Alright."

They were standing near an empty physics classroom, and the girl followed House as he walked in and flipped on the light. He led the girl over to one of the lab tables, indicating for her to sit on top of it. After she was sitting with her back to the edge of the table, House pulled over a stool, put on some gloves from his bag, and carefully rolled up the back of her shirt. There were over a dozen messy cuts varying in size, a few of which were open and bleeding. "What did you do, get into a fight with a window and lose?"

The girl remained silent, flinching as he careful prodded around the numerous cuts on her back. After a few minutes, he started rummaging through his bag. "I have good news and bad news for you. The good news is, none of the cuts are very deep. You won't bleed out anytime soon. The bad news is, there's still some glass in a couple of the cuts, which means-" he pulled out a pair of tweezers from his bag- "that I have to get them out. "Now, this might take a little bit, so get comfortable. Well, relatively speaking, that is."

She hissed at the sting of an alcohol wipe over her back, then tried to hold as still as she could while he tended to her wounds. She remained quiet as he worked, with only the occasional clink of glass against countertop breaking the tension.

"So, you want to tell me what really happened?" House asked eventually. He was met with silence.

"What, did mommy have a little to much to drink?" She still didn't say anything, but House felt her react to his words. "Daddy get fired from his job?"

"Stop it!" She finally snapped. "My parents love me."

"Then who was it? Come on, don't lie to me. It's obvious that this wasn't just an act of clumsiness."

She sighed "...It was my boyfriend. Ex-boyfriend, actually, before you say anything," she said quickly, guessing House's train of thought. "It was because I broke up with him, actually. He had started to become meaner recently, and more violent- but never to me. It was worrying me though, so I decided to break things off. He got mad, pushed me a little too hard, and I fell through a glass table."

"And I'm assuming by the fact that you never sought out medical attention that you have no plans to press charges?" He inspected her back once more, and after finding no evidence of any glass left, he put his tweezers back into his bag and fished out some bandages.

"No! I mean, who'd believe me, anyways? His dad is a firefighter, and his mom is on the school board. Such 'upstanding citizens' would never raise their kid to be like that. Anyway, he's heading out to California with a lacrosse scholarship soon, so I'll never have to see him again." She smirked a little. "Added to the fact that I kicked him in the balls after he pulled that stunt with the table, I'll just say we're even."

House snorted in amusement. Finishing up, he peeled off his gloves and swept the mess on the table into the trash before grabbing his cane and standing up. "Well fine. If you change your mind, I can help. More importantly, if any complications happened to occur, or if there's anything you're not telling me, come on by and let someone know. Not me, specifically- I don't really do mundane, but there are plenty of other doctors who will."

"Yeah, sure," the girl said, hopping off the counter. "Uh, thanks, I guess?"

"It's my job," House said. "Well, I suppose my boss would have things to say about me treating a teenage girl in an empty classroom after school, but what she doesn't know won't hurt her. And I took an oath, 'First, do no harm' and all that, so that technically means that not telling her is the right thing to do."

The girl was mostly successful at holding back a smile at his comment. "Oh, yeah, I haven't told you my name, have I? I'm Bailey. Bailey Jones." She stuck out her hand towards him.

"Dr. House," House replied, accepting it.

"I won't tell you that I'm pleased to meet you, because I definitely wasn't, but it was a better encounter than I expected."

This time, House's lips twitched in amusement. "Likewise."


End file.
